I work as a screenwriter for film & TV. In a former life I was a media specialist & campaign ad writer. Follow me on Twitter @MarkHughesFilms; add me on Google+; and read my question and answers about film, comics, and more on Quora.

Doddle Of The Dead - Putting The App In Zombie Apocalypse, Part 2

Yesterday, I posted the first part of my interview of with the creators of the doddle app, which is used on sets for film and television — including The Walking Dead — to reduce the environmental impact of productions. Today, the discussion continues with Part 2 of the interview, picking up where we left off with the first stages of doddle’s creation…

RICH: So that’s the first thing we did, to create a mobile production guide. In essence, it’s really like taking the best production guides from the U.S. and all around the world and putting it in the palm of your hand. Initially doddle launched in the U.S., and today we’re in the U.S., the U.K., South Africa, and Canada.

And right alongside that, we said, “Wait, we can dream very big here with mobile technology being so new.” And so we thought not only are we going to start with this mobile production guide, but once you find what you’re looking for, how do we integrate that data into your workflow? So, the first major workflow tool we targeted was the call sheet. The call sheet is such an important part of every production, that also happens to be one of the most tedious parts of the entire production process, just to organize everybody; making sure they have what they need; and as David was saying before, giving everybody the notes they need as individuals and teams. What we did is, we tried to advance the technology that already existed and reinvent it at the same time.

What I mean by that is, the film and television industry already had a pretty unique way of dealing with this complex task, and that is with some complex set of spreadsheets that tend to be proprietary. Every assistant director comes with their own spreadsheets, so to speak, but they all have the same basic information. They organize people by teams, they tell them where they need to be and where to go, and all of the information that binds a production together.

So what we did is two things: number one, we made it extremely simple to take information that already exists in our production directory or in your own contact list, and by just pointing and clicking with the ease of an iTunes app to be able to create these call sheets to build a beautifully branded PDF without even thinking about it, and easily distribute that; and at the same time, saying, “How do we really utilize this mobile platform?”

What we did is created this digital interactive call sheet, so at the same time you’re sending out these branded PDFs, you’re also sending out this digital document that can appear on people’s smartphones that does all these great things. It can mark a GPS location when you’re location scouting; it will automatically refresh the weather and lighting conditions every time you open it; it will give you turn by turn directions to every location or emergency resource that’s on the sheet; it will allow you to attach photos so you can really dynamically describe whether there are scene shots, storyboards, whether there are location photos… and so it becomes this living, breathing document.

Those were the two basic foundations of the doddle platform. Since we’ve launched, we’re thrilled that productions at all levels — from independent commercials and features, to episodic television and reality shows — have really jumped on the doddle platform.

JIM: The news industry has done a lot.

RICH: And what we did is, once we saw people enjoying the platform for the call sheets and for the directory, we’re looking at how else can we serve? So we’ve launched our own entertainment division that features entertainment news, so while people are looking for resources and doing their daily call sheets, they can check up on entertainment news. We’ve got bloggers who blog on all different aspects of the industry, and we’re just about to launch a jobs and classified section as well.

It’s one of those things where we’ve got our eye on the future, constantly innovating, looking through that mobile lens to say, “What can we bring that’s going to really allow people to work more efficiently in the field?”

JIM: And we really see a day when we can bring a totally paperless production to the industry. That’s for everything, for all the reports that people do. Their scouting reports, their production reports, their equipment reports, and really just have it intertwine to allow us to integrate all the data from one form to the other with the ease of pushing a button.

And by the way, in case you’re wondering, “doddle” by definition means a job or task that’s easy to complete. That’s really why we named it doddle, because in the U.K. they say “it’s a doddle” like we say “it’s a piece a cake.” That’s what we want to do, make everybody’s life easier out in the field.

DAVID: It’s something that either from a producer’s standpoint or let’s say from a government’s or film commission’s standpoint, it’s in their interest to try and make sure the impact of this activity is not only efficient but also sustainable and responsible.

From a producer’s standpoint, the less running around you have to do, the more immediate the information can be communicated to the people who need it, this translates into efficiency. And efficiency can also mean cost-saving. When you’re talking in terms of a film or a television shoot, or even it’s just (as Jim was saying) a little three-person news crew that’s got to go out and report or do an interview with somebody, to be able to pull these people from different places and coordinate their activity all into one place just by using a distributed information system and a smart phone or tablet as your hub just makes so much sense.

The industry also relies on knowledgeable and capable suppliers, people who know how to immediately produce 130 hot meals that are required because somebody is running late and maybe there’s a meal mandated by the labor code they’re working under. You’re not necessarily just going to pick up the phone and call the closest takeout pizza place. You’re going to want to know there’s somebody who is a qualified supplier. And one of the aspects that’s really interesting about doddle is the idea that people can give recommendations and actually review the suppliers in a particular jurisdiction.

I’m in Toronto, so maybe I have to do a shoot somewhere between Buffalo and Rochester, and I’m going to want to know who in that area knows what it is that I’m talking about when I say, “I’ve got a shoot and I need you to bring me some expendable supplies.” I may not know the area well, but I need to know somebody who is close by who can deliver whatever it is that happens to be for me. This is another aspect of the doddle platform that is extremely useful to people.

The other thing that is also very useful is the idea Rich and Jim have developed for something that allows instant messaging to be delivered as well. So if instead of people having to use walkie talkies, which are noisy on set and usually a nuisance if you’re off set, [they] have the ability to deliver it right to somebody’s phone in their pocket, vibrating quietly, then that’s the kind of improvement to the overall process that is really a big advantage in efficiency, in cost savings, in convenience, and in environmental impact.

You spoke about being fans of Apple products. Looking into the future, how much do things like Siri for example — and long-term plans perhaps for a home version of Siri that mightbe entirely voice and motion activated –factor into your plans down the road?

RICH: It’s one of the things we’re keeping a very close eye on. Today, with iOS 6, Siri can launch the app, but that’s as deep as they go. But it’s one of those things where we want to be very in tune with all of the possibilities that the best smartphones offer, and take full advantage of that. So, yeah, I can see at some point being able to speak exactly what you’re looking for, deep into our app right from Siri or things like it.

Even now, with iOS 6, Apple has turn-by-turn directions right in that app; whereas before, just a few months ago, we would give you turn-by-turn directions, but you’d have to go screen by screen as anybody who knows Apple does. Now, right from within our call sheets, we’ve taken full advantage of the platform advances. Any location, you just touch it and it’ll tell you, “Make your next right in one hundred feet.”

JIM: Even when I’m creating call sheets myself, which I do every week here with my other company, I use the features such as where you can click on that little microphone in any of our note sections or any of the fields, and I can literally talk my notes out. I don’t have to type them in the phone and use my big thumbs that I have. So we’re using all of these little technologies to make your life a little easier in the end.

DAVID: I can also speak from my own experience. When you’ve got an active set, sometimes the location that you’re shooting in, you may not be able to park right in front of or right beside. You may only be able to have a couple of vehicles that are available to you there. The rest of your unit might be parked a block away. You might have extras holding in a nearby church hall or school that you’ve got on standby, so really you’re distributing where things are to a bunch of people who don’t really know where they’re going.

And [with doddle] you’d be able to say, “Okay, extras, this is where you report to. Craft service or catering, this is where you report to. Transportation, this is where you’re going to be putting together your base camp…” All of these things can be distributed in a way that otherwise would take an awful lot of tape or distribution. And if something change, if there’s a problem with weather or availability, if you have to change halls because there’s a problem with the original holding area you put together, that can all be instantaneously communicated to 150 people if you need to.

RICH: Yeah, it’s really the beauty of thinking back and forth on the Web. So you can have one member of the team in the office on their desktop and somebody else at a Starbucks getting coffee, make a quick change and in seconds say, “We have to push the entire call back a half hour,” cascade that through every schedule time, click a button to have that out in an email and automatically be updating everybody’s smartphone in seconds.

JIM: Once you have your call sheet in your phone, or your iOS device at all, just by flicking down on the screen with your thumb it will automatically refresh at any time to get that data.

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